In Fall 2011 the UMass Amherst campus is switching from using eInstruction’s PRS clickers to i>clicker. Instructors will be pre-ordering i>clicker remotes through the Textbook Annex. To stay up to date with announcements and information about the new i>clicker system please visit our new Audience Response System blog. This August we will be offering introductory…
Author: Tony Sindelar
Moodle Summer Update
The campus may be quiet during July… but our planning and preparations for the Fall 2012 Moodle Pilot continue to move forward. If you are part of our Fall 2011 Moodle pilot, make sure to check out our upcoming Moodle workshops in August. In addition to startup and conversion workshops, we have sessions on setting…
Digital Storytelling Resources
As we conclude the 2010-2011 academic year we wanted to assemble a collection of our resources related to digital storytelling and student video projects in anticipation of instructors who may want to use these next year. As always if this is something you are interested in exploring further we encourage you to contact the Instructional…
Staying in Synch
For anyone who works from more than one computer, synchronizing files is an important issue. If you can’t access the latest version of your grant proposal or the revised version of that syllabus; frustration is bound to ensue. Carrying files around on USB drives and emailing attachments to yourself are possible solutions, but there are…
Moodle Preview
Today we hosted our first Preview of Moodle, UMass Amherst’s new Learning Management System. (We have three more previews in the coming weeks if you’d like to attend one, check our workshop schedule.) What is Moodle and when do I have to change? Moodle is a widely-used open source learning management system (LMS), that can…
New Additions to Google Docs
Google Docs has recently released two major additions that continue to make it one of the most powerful collaboration tools on the web. If you haven’t tried Google Docs yet, do yourself a favor and spend an hour exploring it. If you already use it, take a moment to check out these two new big…
Staying Safe Online: Securing Your Facebook Account
As Facebook continues to grow in popularity the potential for your personal data to be compromised is ever-increasing. What many Facebook users may not realize is that when you access Facebook through a network connection that other people share (such as in a coffee shop or at an airport) there is the potential that nefarious…
February Workshops from OIT Academic Computing
This February, Academic Computing is offering workshops on a range of instructional technology topics, including: Designing Effective Presentations PowerPoint Basics for Mac and Windows Keynote Basics Managing Citations with Zotero Using GoogleDocs for Collaboration Turnitin in SPARK: Originality Reports on Student Papers Grade Book Management in SPARK Basic Digital Storytelling with iMovie and GarageBand Advanced…
Video: Changing Education Paradigms
Professor Nat Turner reminded me about this great YouTube video you might enjoy on education paradigms:
January Workshops from OIT Academic Computing
Hello! This January, Academic Computing is offering technology workshops for faculty and instructors on basic technologies for teaching and research, audio and video production, and building course websites with SPARK. Many of these workshops are hands-on sessions where you can learn new technologies while working with content from your own courses. For the workshop schedule, descriptions, and online…
Campus Chooses Moodle for New LMS
CIO John Dubach has made the formal announcement about our new LMS system to replace the current Blackboard Vista system we call SPARK: To the Amherst campus faculty: I am writing today with information concerning an important change the campus will be making in its instructional technology over the next two years. As outlined in previous emails,…
SPARK Gradebook not loading? Clear your browser cache
We have been receiving reports of the SPARK Gradebook loading as a blank screen. This is easily fixable by clearing the “cache” from your web browser. Below are the steps for clearing your cache for the 3 most common browsers: To clear the cache in Firefox: 1. In Firefox, click on “Tools” in the top…